Archive for the ‘Nopalea’ Category

TriVita Wellness Entrepreneurs came from all over North America for training on the new Daily Detox product and program. The Event Auditorium was packed at the new TriVita Wellness Center. What an exciting time for me.

I had the joy of addressing this passionate group of wellness advocates. I spoke of how Daily Detox is more than just physical; it is understanding that the immune system is intelligent and is compromised when it is overwhelmed with physical, emotional and spiritual toxins. We are all aware of toxins in the air, water and food but there are also emotional and spiritual toxins.

I presented a very simple garbage bag illustration: we go through life stuffing our bag with negative experiences, without dealing with their toxic effects. For me, I always thought it was about trying to forget and move on. What I did not realize was that the toxic effect remained there in my subconscious. I just stuffed the experience in my life garbage bag. Most everyone in the audience began to think of some really tough life experiences that they had not dealt with through forgiveness. Sometimes we even need to forgive ourselves for making toxic bad choices. Forgiveness is one of the most empowering things we can do in our lives to eliminate the toxic effects of a bad experience. We can detoxify our lives!

I shared a prayer I have used; it has worked for me and I have witnessed amazing experiences in others who have used it as a way to free themselves of life’s toxic effects. The prayer should be prayed until the word YOU has no face or person attached to it but is simply a word. I encourage you to just start this by saying you will read this prayer daily for one week. You will be amazed at its power. It is called a Prayer of Blessing:

I forgive YOU right now – wherever you are – whatever you are doing – whoever you are with –whatever you are thinking – whatever you are feeling about me or anyone else. I forgive you and bless you and I let go of all resentment, hurt and pain. I pray this prayer of blessing for your life. I know I have been also set free to be blessed in my life. We are blessed!

The more we are free from life toxins, the more powerful we become. The less our immune system is compromised by dealing with toxins, the more vitality we have in life. The more vitality, the more joyful and rewarding is the life we can live! If you want more wellness, relationship and financial rewards in life, you must learn to live a less toxic life!

Forgiveness is God’s way for us to cleanse ourselves, so be a host to God and not a hostage to self!

Like this:

This past month I have taken some time to rejuvenate and refresh. Yes, even CEOs need down time!! I find the outdoors is always where I connect to a spiritual realm through reflection and relaxation. It is a place where I can observe creation but feel no need to respond to, fix, or even enhance the observation. This past week I was down in the Eagle Creek area in Arizona. It was fabulously beautiful with the fall colors in full brightness. The cliffs which rise hundreds of feet above the creek create every imaginable shape in spheres, crevices, ledges and outcroppings. There the eagles and hawks soar above and land where they desire. The Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep do amazing things on the cliffs, like launching themselves onto ledges, seeming to defy gravity in the process.

In a particular case, I watched a mother ewe come to a crevice that had to be 8 feet wide with little footing available on the other side. I watched her look back to her 6-month-old lamb and wait for it to come right behind her, and then launch herself to the other side. She then stood there for a moment and looked back to assure the lamb and then turned and walked away a few feet, only looking back as though to say “you can make it.” I stood there staring, holding my breath to watch the lamb gather itself to launch to the other side. The lamb teetered back and forth, doubting whether it was possible, but seeing its mother on the other side coaxing and never doubting in the direction she was headed, the lamb launched itself into the air. My heart literally raced as it seemed impossible that this lamb could make it safely to the ledge. When it landed on the other side, its hind legs slipped and it starting digging in rapidly to find the footing it needed. What was so incredible was the reaction of the ewe: she calmly stood there until the struggling lamb was secure by her side and then she continued on in the direction she had determined for them.

This incident was on my mind for days and I thought about it in so many ways. You can’t be in that environment and not observe the fact that there had to be a Creator of this magnificent place. What an imagination for such a creation! It was like a miniature Grand Canyon but not so overwhelmingly large; you could feel the cliffs and walk out to their edges to look at the beauty below, or be at the bottom floor and look almost vertically straight up for hundreds of feet to experience what I described with the ewe and lamb.

But it also was inspiring to me to know that the Creator of the plan and purpose for my life was leading me like the ewe did with the lamb. At times, it seems beyond my ability to go from where I am to where I need to go. But it is the knowledge that God would never ask of me something I could not do that inspires me to take the steps I need to launch onto a new ledge in life.

But it also was inspiring to me to think of the mentors we need who have scaled the cliffs of life. Mentors who have been there as lambs but are now surefooted with experience and maturity. What was so remarkable was that the ewe never turned around with doubt, only looking back to ensure the lamb was following and to give it the assurance it needed.

In our lives we need mentors and we need to mentor others. Never creating doubt as to where we need to go – just demonstrating the belief that we can go there together.

As we close out this year at TriVita, we certainly have navigated the cliffs of life. We have accomplished a lot with the opening of the Wellness Center, the opening of our Hong Kong office serving Southeast Asia, and merging Amazon Herb Company with TriVita. At times it seemed the cliffs were steep and the footing not as secure as we would like, but we have made it.

As we look forward to the next great year, I would like to ask you this question: Who are you mentoring along the cliffs of life and wellness? If we all had several people we were mentoring so they in turn could mentor others, would it not be an incredible 2013? Well, the launching of the WE community in TriVita will be exactly that kind of program. Get ready for the greatest year TriVita has ever experienced.

May all of you enjoy the spirit of the holidays and your days be filled with cheer and joy.

Share this:

Like this:

I returned home from Vancouver, B. C., where I had been speaking to one of the most diverse groups of people I’ve seen in one room. I was wondering what brought these people of different ethnic, religious, and socio-economic backgrounds together. What was the commonality and how could this group go forward? Here is my conclusion, and it is in the heart and soul of most every individual if they will allow it to blossom. It is their dream of a life of meaning and purpose. I like to think of those dreamers in TriVita as Wellness Entrepreneurs.

Entrepreneurs are dreamers. They function best when allowed to connect their dreams to what they do every day. They are typically more spontaneous, unorthodox and in fact, disruptive – which seems to be the best strategy for an entrepreneur with a big audacious idea!! They are certainly willing to embrace change!

But that really has been the foundation of North American advancement over the past several hundred years. If I may use a term many people are familiar with and one I am most comfortable in using as my basis for this blog, it is the “American Dream”!

According to Wikipedia, “The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States, a set of ideas in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility achieved through hard work.”

In the definition of the “American Dream” authored by James Truslow Adams in 1931, life should be better, richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to their ability regardless of social economic class or circumstance of birth. The idea is rooted in the U.S. Declaration of Independence that proclaims “all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.”

What we must remember is Adams wrote the “American Dream” when the bustling, growing America had lost nearly everything in a short period of time called the Great Depression. My father’s family lost everything in the Great Depression so I know the stories of hardship. But in the midst of this hardship, James Adams cast a new vision for hope, and freedom for all to dream again of prosperity – he coined the term the “American Dream”!

Who really built America? In this election year you might have to stop and process that question from what all we have heard. But history shows us who built America. The Dreamers did… those we call entrepreneurs. Was it easy to sail from Europe in small ships to find a new land of opportunity? Not according to history. Was it easy to carve small farms out of the forests? Was it easy to travel west and endure the hardships of opening up new territories without any infrastructure other than nature? Not according to history. But they were dreamers!!

What about those people who first bought automobiles when there were no service stations or even roadways to support their new way of traveling? Horse and carriage had far more support. There certainly was not OnStar roadside service! The kerosene lantern was more convenient and reliable than electrical service when the electric light bulb was invented. It was the dreamers of a better world who supported the new ideas.

Who built America? It was the many people who pursued the American Dream. The government’s role is to offer protection and the human rights of liberty and freedom that enable people to fulfill their entrepreneurial dreams.

Today we know we face many challenges. Those impacted by the horrific Superstorm Sandy know the emotions of loss. Those who lost everything in what we now call the Great Recession – savings, retirement accounts, home equity, and even college funds for their children – know the feelings of loss. What will lift us out of this time period of loss and setback is what has always carried us forward. It is our dreams! It is what we are willing to sacrifice because we know the rewards. We don’t need government to feed, clothe and care for us, we need government to protect and give us those rights and freedoms to pursue our dreams.

As Wellness Entrepreneurs, may you pursue your dreams and purpose with passion and intentions! Live the Dream… Your Dream!

Like this:

Here in the U.S., we celebrate our freedom on July 4th – Independence Day! Not Entitlement Day or Convalescence Day! No, freedom to be independent to pursue our passions and purpose in life! I consider freedom and my wellness to be two of the most important personal assets I have in my life. Without them (which we simply do not appreciate enough) life does not have much opportunity or quality.

If you are free and have a sense of wellness, I would like to invite you to join me in audacious living to fulfill our life purposes. I want to finish my blog by quoting from one of the most inspiring little books you can read. If I could say it better I would but this is great. I highly recommend “Rhinoceros Success” by Scott Alexander published by Lampo Press. Here’s an excerpt from chapter 4 titled “Be An Audacious Rhino”:

“You are audacious! Your audacity makes you the charging rhinoceros that you are. This is what separates you from the cows and sheep. You are daring! You are adventurous! You are recklessly bold! You are a charging, not-afraid-of anything rhinoceros. You have guts! You have nerve! You have backbone! Every day you wildly charge through the jungle having the time of your life. You don’t ask for anyone’s permission. You just plow through, knocking down anything that gets in your way. The jungle floor vibrates and the trees shake as you boldly charge through. GO FOR IT is your motto. You shout it at the top of your rhino lungs every morning. You are not afraid of falling because you know that nothing can hurt you with your two-inch thick skin. The worst possible thing that can happen to you is that you will get killed, and death is a negligible incident in your life. Everyone dies, even cows and sheep. Why worry about that? Your future accomplishments are what excite you. Today you might be in the depths of depression, but tomorrow you could be at the heights of ecstasy. You love adventure! Jack London’s verse really captures your damn-the-torpedoes, rhino spirit: I would rather be ashes than dust. I would rather that my spark burn out in a brilliant blaze than be stifled by dry rot. I would rather be a super meteor, every atom of me in magnificent glow, than a sleepy and permanent planet. Choose to be audacious. Have an audacious attack every day. Success is audacious. Be bold and go after it. Develop your audacity skills. Do things that take nerve. Don’t be obnoxious or make a jackass out of yourself but do every daring thing necessary to reach your goals. Every goal, every dream, every great project requires audacity. Aggressive, audacious, charging rhinoceroses succeed. Charge!”

I would like to add that you are free and independent to pursue your purpose in life!! Charge!

I hope to see many of you at the Galaxy of Stars. It is going to be the greatest yet as we are going to charge our lives with an audacious goal of getting one million people to take the Nopalea 60-day Wellness Challenge by GOS 2013. Supermodel Cheryl Tiegs will be there Saturday to share her vision and goals to lead the charge. Quality of life is not an entitlement, but it is worthy of being pursued. That is our charge… to live and help others live with physical, emotional, spiritual and financial wellness.

Like this:

We just spent our special time at the ranch with our grandkids. Susan and I look forward to this time in Colorado each year, as we attempt to do only what the kids desire to do. For me, it probably is a time to relive my youth, thinking of all the things I would have loved to do at a ranch like fishing in the creek, riding quads, shooting guns, bottle feeding a calf, looking for arrowheads, etc. But one cute little incident got me to thinking about why so many people struggle in life; it is because they never give up their childhood perspective.

I was pouring lemonade for each of the grandkids and after serving the 7-year-old, sweet, pretty, smart, personality plus Miss Emmaline (Grandpa talk), she looked at me with a little pouty look and said, “Grandpa, you didn’t fill my glass as full as theirs!!!” “Well sweetie, you drink that and you can have as much as you want as there is plenty more in the refrigerator.” Just that simple statement turned her concern to total enjoyment of a glass just half full. She had made the comment seeing the last drop from the pitcher and not a full glass.

We have all heard this phrase: Is your glass half full or half empty? While it is such a familiar cliché we don’t even give it a thought, but it does reveal an emotional state that not only drives individuals but world economies as well. I watched a special on CNBC about the 2012 apocalypse-based fear that is spreading around the world. People truly believe the world is going to dramatically change or end in 2012. The behavior of many people is changing in response to their fear: they are buying dried food, extended life batteries, and building bunkers to survive this event. In fact, you can get a 13-floor cylinder bunker built for only a cool million dollars!

The news is reporting that the world economy is shrinking right now, and it seems like fear of the unknown is gripping people everywhere. As the media reports it, the markets are reeling from the fear of the unknown and from being unable to project normal growth – and from having to project contraction in many parts of the world.

Some of you may be thinking, Ok, Ellison, get to the point. Here is my point: The dominant emotion in your life will dictate your behavior!! If the glass is half empty, does it lead you to believe in lack and scarcity? If the glass is half full, does it allow you to enjoy each sip or gulp, filled with the gratitude and knowledge that there is more lemonade in the refrigerator?

When we interact with people, it is impossible to hide our inner feelings and emotions. A life lived with gratitude for what you have and with gratitude for the opportunity to have more, allows you to freely share the opportunities that are important in your life. Those you engage with will trust and feel your calming and reassuring demeanor.

Today our world is being rocked as many leaders and masses of people are viewing their glasses as half empty. Class warfare will never bring out the best in each of us. Comparing our glass to the glass of another may be the way each of us would react at the age of 7 seeing the pitcher empty, but when we know the refrigerator is full, it allows the joy of living with well-being.

As TriVita Members and Affiliates, may I encourage each of you with the fact that we do not have a lack of resources in our world but only a lack of belief and imagination about how to best bring them to fruition. The way to prosperity and success in life – whether as individuals or as a nation – is to become one of those who believe that the glass is half full but that there is more.

Again, my point is that your beliefs and dominant emotions do affect the way you live and the way you are perceived by others.

Like this:

Can you imagine how radically your life would change if you lost your vision?

I have to admit I rarely think about it as I have been blessed with good vision; even in my 60s I still have no vision issues nor require readers. I am grateful. But if I lost my vision, my life would change radically. I could not just jump into any of my vehicles whether at home or the ranch and drive to the destination of my choice; I could not open a fly box to find the perfect color pattern to raise a trophy trout feeding in the riffles; and I would not be able to enjoy watching the natural beauty of my bird dogs as they work the fields and brush.

You get the point: our lives would be radically different. But the point I am really making is that this same idea applies to many other areas of our lives.

Assuming we all want to be successful in life, my observation of successful people in any field of endeavor – corporate, entrepreneurial, sports, music, etc. – is that a clear vision seems very evident in their lives. In fact, many of these people have visions way beyond our worldview and they can even clearly see how to simplify complexity. We refer to the super wealthy like Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Richard Branson, Steve Jobs and Larry Ellison as great visionaries. They have a different view of the world!

My second observation of successful people is that they always have a plan to implement their vision. So it is pretty easy to connect the dots. Create a clear vision and develop a plan to achieve success – and yet 95% of people do not go through the simple exercise of vision, plan and goals.

Mark Victor Hansen, co-author of the “Chicken Soup for the Soul” series of books, wrote another book called “The One Minute Millionaire: The Enlightened Way to Wealth.” He was in my office and gifted me this book which I greatly appreciated. In the book, one chapter covers mentoring. You know my teachings on Lead, Serve, Mentor!! He writes that when the student is ready, the teacher shows up. When we are ready to expand our vision and develop our plan, the teacher shows up.

What Mark writes is very interesting as he states that the most common form of mentorship is serendipitous, meaning, discovered by accident. If you are open and teachable you can accidently be taught by people you meet about your vision and plan.

But a serendipitous mentor doesn’t have to always be a person. It can be anything that causes you to change course in life, anything that gives insight and enlightenment to your vision and plan. It can be a life-threatening disease, a job loss, or a financial crisis but it can also be a big audacious idea!

For me, it was losing my health and then the commitment to go on a wellness journey to discover the keys to wellness. On my journey, the audacious idea was to see how many people all over the world I could inspire to join me on the journey, which led to the founding of TriVita. The vision gets clearer and bigger every day and yes, the serendipitous mentors keep coming into my life to help enhance the vision and plan.

I am so excited about the new TriVita Wellness Center with its cutting-edge telemedicine tools along with eCoaching. Can you imagine your Siri smart phone calling you each morning with your wellness plan activities outlined for the day, based on your vision and plan developed at the wellness center!! Oh, yes!!!!

We are opening our Hong Kong center in September. The vision grows every day… Barry Borthistle and Mark Victor Hansen and his lovely wife, Crystal, are creating a big audacious vision for that grand opening!

I can’t wait for the Galaxy of Stars to share the vision of the next 12 months. I just spoke with Cheryl Tiegs who will be at GOS and she is absolutely thrilled to carry the torch out front of this March to a Million Campaign. She has asked if she can be the spokesperson and go to the media with this audacious idea of inspiring a million people to improve the quality of their lives.

I hope you are working on your plan to get your new iPad at Galaxy of Stars… the tools will be amazing to help you achieve the success you desire for your life.

Yes, when the student is ready to expand the vision and plan, the serendipitous mentor shows up!!